Kennedy wants law changed in Massachusetts … again

posted at 9:30 am on August 20, 2009 by Ed Morrissey

During the time MItt Romney was governor of Massachusetts, Senator John Kerry ran for President and looked at times that he might win. The state legislature, egged on by Kerry’s Senate partner Ted Kennedy, changed the law regarding the selection of a replacement Senator to require a state election, keeping Romney from the possibility of appointing — quelle horreur! — a Republican in Kerry’s place. Now that Ted Kennedy is perhaps too ill to continue, Kennedy now wants the law changed back, since there’s a Democrat in the governor’s chair.

A cancer-stricken Sen. Edward M. Kennedy has written a letter to Massachusetts leaders asking that they change state law to allow a speedy replacement of him in Congress.

The note has been sent to Gov. Deval Patrick and the state’s Senate president and House speaker while Congress considers an overhaul of the nation’s health care system, one of Kennedy’s projects.

The letter acknowledges the state changed its succession law in 2004 to require a special election within five months to fill any vacancy. At the time, legislative Democrats — with a wide majority in both chambers — were concerned because then-Republican Gov. Mitt Romney had the power to directly fill any vacancy created as Democratic Sen. John Kerry ran for president.

But Kennedy writes “it is vital for this commonwealth to have two voices speaking for the needs of its citizens and two votes in the Senate during the approximately five months between a vacancy and an election.”

Well, it is now, since Deval Patrick and not Mitt Romney governs Massachusetts. Now, apparently, the needs of a democratic process can take a back seat to the needs of a, um, Democratic process. Suddenly, Kennedy sees the need to have Massachusetts represented by two Senators immediately after an opening, rather than wait for the will of the people.

If there’s a bigger pile of hypocrisy (outside of Washington DC), someone please be sure to mention it in the comments.

The rule of law prevails because it’s seen by most as a fair, non-partisan measure of public behavior. There are good arguments to be made for both gubernatorial appointment and special elections as processes for filling mid-term vacancies in Congress. However, actions by a state legislature and demands by partisan hacks to keep going back and forth depending on the party registration of the Governor makes a mockery of the rule of law and underscores the fact that machine politics runs Massachusetts. (via JiangxiDad)

The Boston Globe now notes Mr. Kennedy’s current request “puts lawmakers in a delicate position.” They “are nervous about being accused of engineering a self-serving change to help their party” just a few years after ramming through a similar self-serving change.

It’s sad to see Senator Kennedy sign on to such an obvious ploy. Under the law he now proposes, he would likely not have become a U.S. Senator in 1962, after his brother became president. At the time, Ted Kennedy was too young to be appointed to JFK’s seat. A faithful Kennedy ally was appointed by the state’s Democratic governor for two years as a stand-in until Ted was old enough to run and win in 1962. Under the changes Mr. Kennedy now wants, a special election would instead have been held in early 1961 — an election he would not have been eligible to run in — and he likely would have faced a formidable incumbent if he chose to run as a novice when the seat next came up in November 1962. In the event, Mr. Kennedy secured the Democratic nomination only after his brother’s operatives convinced most of the state’s prominent Democrats not to run. Even so, young Teddy managed to win only 53% of the vote in the general election in a strong year for Democrats with his own brother in the White House.

Blowback

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Comments

Um, did you see the Church’s treatment of The One? How about the number of Catholics who voted for the President who supports ‘baby head squishers’? If ED wants another nominee for hypocrisy…

IlikedAUH2O on August 20, 2009

If you’re talking about Notre Dame, that is a secular university openly mocking it’s Catholic roots.
As for Catholics who voted for Obama, I make no excuses for them (and have no use for them), but the sheep does not lead the flock.

Harry Reid has been dead for a decade and he’s still serving, what’s to stop the Democrat’s from calling in the taxidermist, stuffing this old baboon like the Thanksgiving turkey that he is and wheeling him in to vote “aye” when they want him to.

Lefties love stuffing their leaders (Lenin, Mao) so I think this would be a good solution for them.

Three words, for those of you assessing this miscreant’s character and motivation:

Mary.

Jo.

Kopechne.

The voters of Massachusetts may have forgotten, amidst their masturbatory fetishism regarding all things Kennedy, (a clan whose patriarch was a Nazi sympathizer, a fact also tucked down their collective memory hole), but there’s no reason residents of the other 49 States need to remain so blissfully ignorant.

They “are nervous about being accused of engineering a self-serving change to help their party” just a few years after ramming through a similar self-serving change.

Really? Since when have Democrats ever given a damn about truth or justice or consistency? It’s a party of power-hungry pander whores. This is exactly what they do. They are crooks, the lot of them, and self-satisfied crooks, to boot.

Believe me, no whore in the MA Legislature is the least bit concerned about being self-serving. They steal in the open here. That’s why the last three Speakers of the House have been indicted and two were convicted of felonies and the third is awaiting trial.

They “are nervous about being accused of engineering a self-serving change to help their party” just a few years after ramming through a similar self-serving change.

Hahahaha – no they aren’t.

Nervous… good one. Do they suddenly think only 80% of them will run unopposed instead of 85%?

My so called representatives here continually extend their middle finger to the voters, with no reprecussions. Even to their own moonbat following. They just do whatever the hell they want until the feds lead them away in cuffs (which hardly ever happens, anyway).

Um, did you see the Church’s treatment of The One? How about the number of Catholics who voted for the President who supports ‘baby head squishers’? If ED wants another nominee for hypocrisy…

IlikedAUH2O on August 20, 2009 at 4:14 PM

I’m Catholic and I live in Rhode Island, the most Catholic state in the Union. It drives me crazy that the people of this state continue to vote in Democrat after Democrat after Democrat.

However, you would be wrong to think that all people, either in Catholic laity or in religious life, are supporters of our current president. I urge you to view the following, which is a statement from the Cardinal Newman Society given by Father John Corapi. Father Corapi is a very well-known Catholic speaker (last weekend he preached in front of a crowd of 15,000 people in Buffalo) and trust me he’s no liberal.

Please understand that there are those of us within the Catholic faith who are fighting the good fight.

I always figured that the Massachusetts wingnuts would simply put Ted Kennedy’s head in a jar after he finally bites the big one and set it on a table top where he could continue to reign from there since there is no viable Kennedy heir to carry on in his place.

What are the people of Massachusetts going to do after their pet Kennedy finally exits stage left?

I predict mass hysteria, public wailing, pants-wetting, and many sleepless nights of pillow biting.

As for Edward Moore “Ted” Kennedy, I predict an eternity of being water-boarded in Hell… with Mary Jo Kopechne on bucket.

Governor Romney is no longer a resident of Ma so he won’t be running for anything here.

Ricki on August 20, 2009 at 2:54 PM

Actually that is incorrect. The Romneys were selling the large fanily manse but were in the market for a condo. Whether they have found one yet I do not know. But there were stories on it. Good time to buy too.

Really? I live in Taxachusetts and hardly notice the difference between having 1 useless senator as opposed to 2. As it it is my Congressman, Delahunt is too chickenshit to hold an local gatherings for people to speak their piece about healthcare, Mass Health alreday sucks.

Working in auto insurance you wouldn’t believe the Doctor’s, driving their jaguars and getting provided state funded healthcare when they damn well can afford their own.

As a Massachusetts residence, I must say this is expected merely as just the way things work here. To the political leadership of this state, Law is not considered as a common agreement for the benefit of society, but merely as a tool for those in power to retain and exercise their power or augment their wealth.

The people of this state have lived under such tyranny for so long, one could best describe their mood as “resigned.” It reminds me of the oppressed people of the old Soviet Union, where they used to have a joke: “Under capitalism, man exploits man. Under communism, it’s the other way around.”

He’s getting close to kicking the bucket. I have to remember to order my Ted’s Dead Party Cake tomorrow.
(It’ll have a Chappaquiddick bridge and a submerged 69 Olds on it with a drowning female passenger.)

The Boston Globe now notes Mr. Kennedy’s current request “puts lawmakers in a delicate position.” They “are nervous about being accused of engineering a self-serving change to help their party” just a few years after ramming through a similar self-serving change.

Funny that MA lawmakers were not concerned about having only ONE senator the past year when Kennedy was on his sick bed….

Oh, and, the Kennedy powers have faded; he couldn’t get Caroline elected!

Ted Kennedy is the poster child for corrupt politicians. Brain tumor or not, he is a vile human being. If he really cared about the people of MA, he would have resigned his seat months ago. But no, he’s got to hold on to power until the very end. I won’t be celebrating his death but I won’t be mourning it either.

Seems to me the state of Massachusetts has been without 2 representatives for a while already since the liar…I mean lion of the Senate fell ill. Perhaps he should resign now and let the special election process begin instead of drawing his congressional pay since he’s so worried about it. Surely Ted could afford to step down and ante up his his Cobra insurance payments while he takes that lonely walk through death’s door. That way they could select someone who can actually do the job now.

I only hope he lingers for awhile so he can truly empathize with the suffering he brought to Mary Jo when she met her demise.

This man never quits. Not only has he already ruined the country due to his sponsorship of a bill in the sixties to allow in more migrants from certain countries vowing it would not change the face of America. We all know the outcome of that. Now, in part, due to the masses of illegals flooding the healthcare system, the government thinks they have to pass a healthcare legislation to cover them and other poor people who can’t afford health insurance. I guess Teddy doesn’t believe in the afterlife because if I were in his shoes, I would be down on my knees begging for forgiveness for what I had done to this once great country and trying desperately to undue some of the damage.

I hope the drunken adulterous reprobate spends the remnant of his godforsaken existence (none dare call it a “life”) in exquisite agony as the cancer eats away at his pre-enbalmed brain. But first I hope the cancer metastasizes to his prostate and colon.